Kamba, or Kikamba, is a
Bantu language spoken by millions of
Kamba people
The Kamba or Akamba (sometimes called Wakamba) people are a Bantu ethnic group who predominantly live in the area of Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and north to Embu, in the southern part of the former Eastern Province. This land i ...
, primarily in
Kenya
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...
, as well as thousands of people in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
, and elsewhere. In Kenya, Kamba is generally spoken in four
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
:
Machakos,
Kitui,
Makueni, and
Kwale. The Machakos dialect is considered the
standard variety and has been used in translation. The other major dialect is Kitui.
Kamba has lexical similarities to other Bantu languages such as
Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language.
It may also refer to:
* Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya
*Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people
*Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...
,
Meru
Meru may refer to:
Geography Kenya
* Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya
** Meru County, created by the merger of
*** Meru Central District
*** Meru North District
*** Meru South District
* Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park
T ...
, and
Embu.
The
Swedish National Museums of World Culture holds field recordings of kamba language made by Swedish ethnographer
Gerhard Lindblom in 1911–12. Lindblom used phonograph cylinders to record songs along with other means of documentation in writing and photography. He also gathered objects, and later presented his work in ''The Akamba in British East Africa'' (1916)''.''
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
* /tʃ/ occurs as a result of palatalization among /k/ before /j/.
* In post-nasal positions, sounds /t, k, s, tʃ/ then become voiced as
, ɡ, z, dʒ The voiced fricative /β/ then becomes a voiced stop
in post-nasal position.
* The palatal glide sound /j/ is typically articulated to the front of the mouth, so that is interdental as
°Ìžor alveolo-palatal as
ÌŸ When preceding a consonant however, it is always heard as a regular palatal glide
References
Sources
* Mwau, John Harun (2006). ''Kikamba Dictionary: Kikamba-English, Kikamba-Kikamba, English-Kikamba''. .
External links
PanAfriL10n page on KambaĨvuku ya Mboya kwa andũ Onthe
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Kamba, digitized by Richard Mammana
Northeast Bantu languages
Languages of Kenya
{{Bantu-lang-stub